Texas Is Staring Down a Major Winter Storm

An arctic cold front is approaching the Great Plains this week, pointing south into central Texas. Cold temperatures and Freezing rain has set in across the state, and dangerous winter weather is expected to continue through Wednesday, according to Monday morning’s news briefing.National Weather Service range forecast.

Much of central Texas is under a winter storm warning and a larger area is subject to a winter weather warning from Monday afternoon, after NWS National Forecast. More than a quarterinches of ice is expected to accumulate over the next 48 hours and up to half an inch of ice is possible in some parts of north and Central Texas, with thermometer lows between 20 and 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Forecasters expect Oklahoma, Arkansas, southern Missouri and western Texas to also be affected by the winter rainfall.

All that cold and ice combined could make roads treacherous. Ice and sleet are already making themselves felt main roads, after the Texas Department of Transportation, and other disruptions are likely. “Accumulations of sleet and freezing rain are likely to create widespread hazardous travel conditions for several days in a row, particularly on untreated surfaces,” NWS forecasters wrote in Monday’s shortangel prediction.

Local weather agencies are advising people to avoid driving as much as possible, especially on Monday and Tuesday evenings and into Wednesday morning. “Drive carefully if you must be outside!‘ Dallas-Fort Worth forecasters wrote in a tweet.

IThe accumulation of ce can also trigger power outages, downed power lines, tree damage, and other infrastructure problems.

Although the cold air is expected to dissipate on Wednesday, humidity is only expected to increase. In the immediate aftermath of the winter storms, eastern Texas is expected to face significant, heavy rainfall that could cause flash flooding in the area.

Texas has been repeatedly hit by cold waves in recent years. Earlier this winter, the state was caught up the nationwide polar vortex that brought singledigit temperatures and dangerous wind showers much of the US In December. Almost exactly a year ago experienced the state a intense cold front that brought the temps down 20 degrees Fahrenheit. And in 2021, a even more extreme Polar vortices sent Texas and more than 20 other states into a deep freeze. Hundreds of people in Texas died and millions across the state lost power for days the power grid has failed under the pressure of the 2021 freeze.

Although none of these individual events have done so clearly linked to climate change are cold snaps and polar vortices expected more often and more intensely for Texas in the course of ongoing climate change. A polar vortex is a phenomenon that occurs when the air circulation patterns that normally sustain an arc occurThe air circulating at high latitudes collapses, and wayward currents carry that frigid air much farther south. Climate change is likely to make these circulatory collapses more often and more severelylike the bowtic warms.